Dreamweaver

Chapter 1

It’s the same room as last time, Joshua thought as the boy curled himself in a little ball along the cold, obsidian wall.  It was the same room, the same table, the same wall that always felt as though he were up north along the shores of Arctic Point.  Curling himself together, trying to keep the heat within him as much as he possibly could never helped; it always escaped easier than he did, and his body kept growing colder and colder.

It’s coming, Joshua thought, pushing up the rims of his glasses.

No signs indicated something was even approaching him.  Everything stood still in the encompassing blackness.  It had taken Joshua a long time to even get this far, knowing the signs of what was to come; the appearance of the strange room, the dimming of the lights until he couldn’t even see his own hand, the sudden chill that would always descend and would suck out all the warmth from him until nothing was left.  He knew it was coming, and wished it would stop.

A low rumble caused him to open his eyes and dart around the room; the darkness behind his eyelids melting away into the darkness of the room he had been in for what felt like hours.  Either way, he didn’t want to see what was coming, but it was always hard to tell what was happening to him when the room became all black like it was.  Last time it had become so dark he skinned his knee on the harsh, splintered wood that made up the table, so he always took that position on the wall with his hands wrapped around his knees as he sat against the wall simply so he knew where he was, thankful that at least the darkness came gradually.

Another rumble made Joshua stand up.  He had almost made it out of here the last time this happened.  There was a lone door that was always locked and stood too high for Joshua to reach the handle; he wasn’t a little kid anymore, but he always felt like he was four and trying to reach the closet door.  But this time meant survival.  This time meant freedom.  He didn’t know how many times he had tried escaping it during the short moments of freedom he had found before, but it always closed before he could reach it.

The third rumble sounded and the walls at the back of the room began to glow with strange runes that shone blue like the coastal waters of the southern Brishind Coast.  He never knew what they said, only that they were from the older languages of T’sivet before the common language existed and that the first set of them said “Joshua” from when he remembered what they were and took the symbols to an interpreter back in Ikasarat who said what they were.  He never disclosed any information about the room or about how they glowed on the walls and were a sign of oncoming disaster.

The rumbling became less distant and more continuous.  Hardly the ground would stop shaking before it started again, causing the table in the center to start rattling around the stone floor.  It never followed the same path any of the times he had come here, which Joshua thought was odd because everything else always followed the same pattern, the same sequence, every other time.  Even his methods of escape.  Of course, when he became as panicked as he eventually got, there was no other option but run.

The rumbling stopped.  The thing he feared had arrived.  He knew it was right outside the door.  He couldn’t run right away.  Every time he tried that before he had failed.  He learned to wait, then run.  But wait too long, and it would catch him before it could move.  Wait too little and it would still be at the door and ready to attack him.  Joshua had never figured out the right time to run, always within reach of the door before he was pulled away.

What’s the use? Joshua thought.  It happens the same way every time.  I can’t help it.

No sooner had Joshua thought this than a very loud banging came from the other side of the door, followed by a low growl.  Joshua flattened himself against the wall as he waited for the moment to run.  The growling became louder and louder and the banging more repetitive; Joshua could see the door slowly breaking apart as the growls became louder and louder before finally busting off its hinges and falling apart to reveal the monster he knew had come for him.